Texas Ranger Division

:For other uses see Texas Rangers (disambiguation).

High-profile busts

The Texas Rangers have assisted in many high-profile cases, but there are some collars that are entrenched in the Rangers' lore, such as those of outlaw John Wesley Hardin, bank robber Sam Bass, and the gunman Clyde Barrow and his moll Bonnie Parker.

Related Topics:
John Wesley Hardin - Sam Bass - Clyde Barrow - Bonnie Parker

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Sam Bass

In 1878, Sam Bass and his gang, who had conducted a series of bank and stagecoach robberies since the previous year, held up two stagecoaches and four trains within twenty-five miles of Dallas. The gang quickly found themselves as the object of a pursuit across North Texas by a special company of Texas Rangers headed by Capt. Junius "June" Peak. Bass was able to elude the Rangers until a member of his party, Jim Murphy, turned informer and cut a deal to save himself in exchange for leading the law to the gang. As Bass's band rode south, Murphy wrote to Major John B. Jones, commander of the Frontier Battalion of Texas Rangers.

Related Topics:
1878 - Dallas

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Jones set up an ambush at Round Rock, where they would rob the Williamson County Bank. On July 19 1878, Bass and his gangs scouted the area before the actual robbery. They bought some tobacco at a store, being noticed by Williamson County Sheriff Caige Grimes. When Grimes approached the group, he was shot and killed, and a heavy gunfight ensued between the outlaws, the Rangers and the local lawmen. A deputy named Moore and Bass were both mortally wounded. The band quickly mounted their horses and tried to escape while continuing to fire, and as they galloped away, Bass was shot again in the back by Ranger George Herold. Bass was later found lying helpless in a pasture north of town by the authorities. They took him into custody where he died from his wounds the next day, on July 21 1878, at 27 years of age.

Related Topics:
Round Rock - Williamson County - July 19 - 1878 - July 21

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John Wesley Hardin

In May 1874, Hardin killed Charles Webb, the deputy sheriff of Brown County, for which the outlaw was relentlessly pursued. John Barclay Armstrong, a Texas Ranger known as "McNelly's Bulldog" since he served at the Special Force as a Sergeant and Capt. Leander McNelly's right hand, asked for permission to arrest the gunman, which was granted. Pursuing Hardin across Alabama and into Florida, Armstrong caught up with Hardin and four members of his gang on board a train in Pensacola. After the dust cleared from their melee, Hardin had been knocked unconscious, one of his gang members killed and the rest arrested.

Related Topics:
May - 1874 - Brown County - John Barclay Armstrong - Alabama - Florida - Pensacola

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Bonnie and Clyde

Frank Hamer, the longtime Ranger Captain, had left the Rangers in 1932. In 1934, at the request of the head of the Texas prison system, Hamer was asked to use his skills to track down Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow (Bonnie and Clyde), whose Barrow gang had engineered a successful breakout of associates imprisoned at Huntsville. Prisoner and Barrow friend Joe Palmer had killed a guard while escaping, and the Barrow gang was responsible for many murders, robberies, and auto thefts in Texas alone, while thwarting law enforcement with embarrassing consistency.

Related Topics:
1932 - 1934 - Bonnie and Clyde - Barrow gang - Huntsville

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After tracking the Barrow gang across nine states, Hamer, in conjunction with officials in Louisiana, had learned that Bonnie and Clyde had visited a home in Bienville Parish on May 21, and that Clyde had designated a rendezvous point near there with gang member Henry Methvin, in case they were later separated. Methvin, apparently cooperating with law enforcement, made sure that he was separated from them that evening in Shreveport, and the posse set up an ambush along the route to the rendezvous at Highway 154, between Gibsland and Sailes. Led by former Rangers Hamer and Manny Gault, the posse now included two Louisiana lawmen in addition to the four Texans, for a total of six. They were in place by 21:00, waiting all through the next day, but with no sign of Bonnie and Clyde.

Related Topics:
Louisiana - Bienville Parish - May 21 - Shreveport - Gibsland - Sailes

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Around 09:10 on May 23, the posse, concealed in the bushes and almost ready to concede defeat, heard Clyde's stolen Ford V-8 approaching. When he stopped to speak with Henry Methvin's father (planted there with his truck that morning to distract Clyde and force him into the lane closest to the posse) the lawmen opened fire, killing Bonnie and Clyde while shooting a combined total of approximately 130 rounds. It is not clear what legal authority there was to kill Bonnie Parker, who was not known to have killed anyone, but Hamer made it clear that he had intended to kill her. He had a reputation for not being overly solicitous with regard to law details. Hamer and others from the posse kept for themselves some of the stolen guns from Bonnie and Clyde's vehicle, and the United States Congress awarded him a special citation for trapping and killing the outlaws.

Related Topics:
May 23 - United States Congress

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